Speaker Bios – 2016 Energy Summit

Keynote Speakers

Cheri Holman is the Executive Director of the USGBC West Michigan Chapter, Director of the Grand Rapids 2030 District and the Michigan Battle of the Buildings.

Cheri is a LEED Accredited Professional with extensive experience and a genuine passion for energy & water conservation. Other areas of interest include indoor environmental quality, clean/renewable energy, access to healthy food and all things related to educating and promoting a healthy built environment.

Prior to her work in non-profit Cheri spent most of her career consulting & partnering with private sector corporations to reduce resource consumption within their facilities through the implementation of energy conservation technologies and improved operational practices.

Mrs. Holman is Past Chair of USGBC West Michigan Board of Directors after serving as Treasurer for 2 years. In early 2008 Cheri founded the LEED for Existing Building Advocacy Group. She served as a subject matter expert for the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) LEED for EB Operations and Maintenance test development in 2008 and the Commercial Reviewer exam test development in 2009. In 2010 & 2011 Cheri served as a Greenbuild conference session reviewer.

Mrs. Holman is a partner in Holman Heating & Cooling, a residential HVAC company based in Greenville, MI

Garrick J. Rochow, Vice President - Consumers Energy

Garrick J. Rochow is vice president of customer experience, rates and regulation, and quality and serves in the role of chief customer officer for CMS Energy and its principal subsidiary, Consumers Energy. He was named to this position in March 2015.

Rochow is responsible for overall customer experience and satisfaction. He also is responsible for budget planning, regulatory strategy, rate case preparation and proceedings and the company’s relationship with the Michigan Public Service Commission, as well as the company’s quality initiative.

Prior to his current role, Rochow served as Consumers Energy’s vice president of customer operations and quality since 2013.

From 2010 to 2013, Rochow served as vice president of energy delivery for Consumers Energy. In this role, he was responsible for the engineering and planning of the company’s electric and natural gas distribution systems. He led the development and execution of plans to maintain, upgrade and expand the distribution systems, and oversaw low- and-high voltage electric distribution, forestry, electrical system control and monitoring, gas pipeline integrity, gas metering and regulation, and gas transmission, storage and compression.

He joined Consumers Energy in 2003 and has held several leadership positions, including combustion turbine business manager at the Zeeland generating facility, and site production manager at the Campbell Generating Complex. Rochow began his utility career as an environmental lead at the Holland Board of Public Works, served as a maintenance superintendent at that municipal utility and handled steam turbine and boiler outage responsibilities.

Rochow graduated from Michigan Technological University with a bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering and earned a master’s degree in business administration from Western Michigan University. He also has attended an Executive Education program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Wisconsin School of Business.

Roger Curtis, President - MIS Speedway

Roger Curtis, president of Michigan International Speedway,a long-time veteran of motorsports administration. At the time of his appointment as the head of MIS in June 2006, Curtis had served as the vice president of Sales and Marketing at California Speedway, where he supervised the superspeedway’s advertising and promotions, sales and marketing, public relations and ticketing operations.

Before his time at California, Curtis, a native of Terre Haute, Ind., served as the senior director of Marketing and Sales at Richmond International Raceway. Prior to that, he was the director of Marketing and Sales at Watkins Glen International.

Curtis’ extensive motorsports resume is not limited to track administration. Involved in motorsports since 1991, he has owned his own motorsports marketing and communications company and has worked with Bobby Allison Motorsports, Bill Davis Racing and NASCAR Nationwide Series driver Bobby Dotter.

Curtis is a graduate of Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Ind.

Roger serves on the following Boards:

Secretary, Lenawee Economic Development Corporation

Michigan Chamber

South Central Michigan Works

Michigan Travel Commission

State Representative, Aric Nesbitt-Chair, House Committee on Energy

Aric Nesbitt represents the 66th District in the Michigan House of Representatives. He was elected in November 2010 and serves as the House Majority Floor Leader and Chair of the House Committee on Energy.

Nesbitt graduated from Lawton High School in 1998. He earned a B.A. in Economics from Hillsdale College December 2001 and later earned his Masters in International Business from Norwegian School of Economics.

Aric has been active in public service from an early age. He is a former Member of the Van Buren County Republican Executive Committee, served as Republican Precinct Delegate, was a Delegate to the Michigan Republican State Convention, deployed by the Republican Party to various state and national legislative races. He volunteered on former State Representatives Mary Ann Middaugh’s first campaign and worked on Senator Tom George’s past campaigns.

Session I A – Clean Energy Makes Sense

Moderator: Renae Hesselink- Nichols

Renae Hesselink is the VP of sustainability at Nichols and a home solar system owner.

“Someone has to take a risk and start the ball rolling. I have always believed in leading by example. Solar does work in Michigan and I want to provide details that actually demonstrate that solar is affordable for an average home owner, on an existing home and that it does work in Michigan,” said Hesselink.

Darwin Baas - Kent County Department of Public Works

Darwin Baas- As the Director of Public Works in Kent County, Dar’s focus is the emerging circular economy – providing leadership and visioning to deliver waste diversion, energy recovery, and sustainable materials management strategies through an integrated solid waste management system for business and residents. Through collaboration and innovation, he is challenging the West Michigan community to think broadly about how waste can become a resource rather than a burden.

Darwin (Dar) brings 25 years of environmental management experience in the public and private sector with experience in emergency response, hazardous waste transportation, environmental contracting, industrial cleaning, landfill, transfer station, material recovery and waste-to-energy operations. His work is centered in West Michigan but he is involved in energy and waste policy at a state and national level.

Julie Baldwin-Michigan Public Service Commission

Julie Baldwin is Manager of the Michigan Public Service Commission’s Renewable Energy Section. Julie has worked at the Commission for 27 years in the areas of both natural gas and electric utility regulation and is currently working on the administration of Michigan’s renewable portfolio standard and issues related to distributed generation.

Session I B – Financing and Cash Rebates

Moderator: David Bell - Progressive AE

John Adams - DTE Energy

John Adams currently is working for the DTE Energy Efficiency Program for Business. He has worked for DTE program now for three years. He currently works as an Energy Advisor with the commercial and industrial customers and contractors to help assist them in receive rebate and incentives for energy upgrades that they have done at their facilities. John started his career on the electrical side of the DTE program but has just taken an open position in the Grand Rapids area to work on the DTE gas program.

John was born and raised in the U.P. of Michigan. He grew up in a small town of 2500 people and after high school he moved to Marquette where he attended college at Northern Michigan University. He completed two years of school at Northern and then transferred down to the Port Huron area to complete my schooling in 2007. He achieved Suma Cum Laude while receiving his degree in Alternative Energy and Renewable Resources.

Once out of college he per cured a position working with a government grant program installing and designing Alternative energy systems for Oakland and Livingston counties. He was a project manager for that program until the grant was closed out in 2013.

Amy Glapinski - Consumers Energy

Amy Glapinski is the Commercial and Industrial Specialty Programs Manager for Consumers Energy. Amy has been implementing and managing commercial energy efficiency programs for over six years with Consumers Energy. She has been intimately involved with the development and implementation of over 20 different pilot and specialty programs serving a wide variety of market segments in Michigan, including Agriculture, Industrial, Education and Government Municipalities. Her goal is to continually develop cutting edge energy efficiency programs to engage and serve customers, while increasing their satisfaction with Consumers Energy through a positive and valuable interaction with their utility.

Andy Levin - Lean & Green Michigan

Andy Levin-President, Lean & Green Michigan. Levin received a BA at Williams College, an MA at the University of Michigan and a JD at Harvard Law School. Levin excelled at all three schools, winning the Arthur B. Graves prize in Religion at Williams, graduating with honors from both Williams and Harvard and receiving a prestigious Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities for study at Michigan. Andy Levin has been an innovator and leader in state and federal energy, workforce and labor policy and practice for many years. Throughout his career, Levin has created new organizations, initiatives and programs that have had transformative effects on companies, nonprofits, unions, and thousands of individuals’ lives. He is President of Lean & Green Michigan, one of America’s first statewide Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) initiatives – and Michigan’s marketplace for energy efficiency and renewable energy financing. Lean & Green Michigan™ is a public-private partnership that uses Michigan’s new PACE statute but takes a market-based approach to energy finance and economic development.

Mary Templeton - Michigan Saves

Mary Templeton is a senior consultant with Public Sector Consultants (PSC) and the executive director of Michigan Saves, a multimilliondollar nonprofit organization managed by PSC that provides financing solutions for energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements. In this capacity, she designs financing programs; oversees organizational governance issues, operations, fundraising, marketing, human resource, technology, and programmatic strategies; and is responsible for the fiscal management of the organization.

Session II A – Lessons Learned

Moderator: DeVon Miller - Western Michigan University

DeVon Miller is the Building Commissioning Administrator at Western Michigan University. DeVon is new to Facilities Management but has over 15 years of experience in project management including energy conservation, building automation systems, building commissioning and is a Commissioning Process Management Professional and LEED Accredited Professional with ASHRAE and Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) respectively. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Technological University.

Jamie Bragenzer - CBRE/Comerica Bank

Jamie Bragenzer-Assistant Energy Manager for CBRE and has over 10 years of experience on the Comerica Bank Account Team. During Jamie’s tenure she has held various Facilities Management roles, transitioning to the Energy and Sustainability team in 2011. Jamie’s key responsibilities include utility management for the Bank’s 630+ facilities across the USA, coordinating waste optimization and recycling efforts, managing on-going water conservation projects, managing the Environmental Management System database tool, providing key data and analytics for the Bank’s CDP and GRI reports for greenhouse gas emissions, in addition to leading the efforts for the Bank’s participation in the BOTB Challenge.

Her contributions to the Comerica Account E&S Team have led to a great deal of client satisfaction and success. Jamie was recently awarded the 2015 CBRE Comerica Bank Account “Most Valuable Player Award” in recognition of her efforts. She continually goes over and above client expectations and routinely volunteers for leadership of new initiatives, always looking for areas to expand services and improve the client’s sustainability metrics. Two of her successful initiatives include Comerica’s first-ever participation in the USGBC Battle of the Buildings Challenge and the portfolio-wide Waste Optimization Program (right-sizing waste containers and collection frequency). Several of the buildings participating in the BOTB Challenge have reduced their overall energy consumption, with one facility reducing their energy usage by over 21% from 2014. The Waste Optimization program is projected to save $34,035 in annual waste disposal fees for Banking Center sites, which represents a 12% savings from the overall contract waste disposal fee. Her Cost Recovery activities (commodities contracts, utilities fees corrections, etc.) have resulted in OpEx savings exceeding $300,000 annually. These savings are a direct benefit to Comerica’s bottom line. Additionally, the Waste Optimization program was nominated and accepted as a CBRE Best Practice.

Jamie recently achieved LEED® AP O+M Certification and continues to look for opportunities to apply LEED practices in her role with CBRE.

Dave Heinz - Odawa Casino

Dave Has been the Odawa Casino’s Master Electrician for 9 years. Dave formed the Energy Reduction Committee in late 2009 and they received their first rebate check in Jan. of 2010. Since then they have reduced the annual utility cost for the Odawa Casino by $500,000.00 a year.

Fred Reddig - Ford Field/Detroit Lions

Mr. Reddig is the Director of Facilities at Ford Field. Fred is responsible for all buildings and systems on the Ford Field footprint, which totals 2.1 million square feet. Mr. Reddig manages all facility-related project work, event preparation, contract services, budget preparation, as well as a department of 8 maintenance technicians. He implemented the strategic design of a Building Automation System, allowing the Building Engineering/Maintenance team 24 hour internet access to key building systems. The building automation system also includes a new lighting control program which reduced annual energy costs by $100K and included day light harvesting controls in the first floor concourse and both atriums.

Mr. Reddig’ s career in facilities management spans over 30 years, with positions also held at Oakwood Hospital and Jones Lang LaSalle, where he was assigned to the Continental, Kresge Foundation and the Delphi account. During that time he implemented an HVAC building automation system critical zone reset program, which reduced energy costs while maintaining air temperature comfort and outside air requirements. He also implemented several energy saving projects which saved the hospital over six figures in annual energy costs. One of those projects involved using soft water in the cooling towers to increase cycles and reduce water consumption.

Fred is a LEED Accredited Professional with an Operations & Maintenance Specialty and holds a degree in Climate Control Technology. He is a Sergeant of Arms at the Southeastern Michigan Power Plant Engineers Society and a retired Lieutenant of the Troy Fire Department. During his tenure at Jones Lang LaSalle he was awarded the SIGMA Engineering and Operations Award of Excellence,

Tom Theoret - Spectrum Health

Tom Theoret –Director, Facilities Spectrum Health Tom Theoret has worked for Spectrum Health for the past 27 years. He began his career as the Assistant Director of Blodgett Hospital and is currently the Facilities Director for Spectrum Health Grand Rapids. He also serves as a facilities consultant for Spectrum Health’s regional hospitals. Tom is a certified Healthcare Facilities Manager, one of only 26 in the state of Michigan. He’s a past President of the Michigan Society of Health Care Engineering association. He currently services on the Ferris State University Facilities Management Program Advisory Board as well as the Lake Michigan Credit Union Board. Tom serves as Chair of the Spectrum Health System Energy Green Team.

Session II B – Indoor Air Quality

Moderator: Keith Winn- Catalyst Partners

Keith Winn is the President of Catalyst Partners a West Michigan based business engaged in the development and implementation of sustainable practices for buildings, interiors, and products. They specialize in green building design, development, construction, and LEED™ certification with energy efficiency services including auditing, modeling, and incentives.

Mr. Winn has been an active participant in the evolution of sustainable design and life cycle methodologies used to assess and develop products. He has worked with MBDC, the Athena Institute, the MTS Smart Product Standards and the NIST BEE’s LCA Project.

Mr. Winn a founding member of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) where he has served on the board as treasurer. He has also been an active participant in the development of LEED standards and serving on several USGBC committees including his role as Vice-Chair of the LEED Steering Committee.

Jeanette Marrero - Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Jeanette Marrero- Jeanette has a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from University of Puerto Rico – Mayaguez Campus. She has worked as an Environmental Engineer at U.S. EPA for the past 24 years addressing air issues, most recently indoor air quality (IAQ) issues e.g. environmental asthma triggers, radon, mold, toxics, IAQ-related building design/operation. She is responsible for implementing the Agency’s IAQ program through voluntary outreach/partnership programs that inform and educate the public about actions that can reduce potential risks in e.g. homes, schools, offices. She provides technical assistance and training on IAQ to different stakeholders.

Sam Pinto - Van Andel Institute

Sam Pinto is the Director of Facilities with the Van Andel Institute. In this role, Sam leads a team of professionals providing all aspects of Facilities support, including the Maintenance, Housekeeping and Food service operations. A big believer in customer service, Sam supports a customer focused approach to delivering these services. Sam has more than 29 years of experience in the building operations environment. Passionate about sustainability and its possibilities, Sam provides a functional work environment where employees can achieve their professional goals all the while minimizing the resources necessary to accomplish this.